There's Something There
by Dobby's Socks
Summary: "There was something about this woman, something the Doctor had seen and was desperately trying to forget. Just see if they let him." Vastra, Jenny, and Strax are determined to help Clara get the Doctor back to his old self. Set during "The Snowmen", mentions of Vastra/Jenny


**I seem to have writer's block for my multi-chapter fics, so this is me just trying to work through that. Plus I've wanted to write something like this since I saw the one trailer for The Snowmen, with Clara looking for the ladder and Jenny watching her. Fortunately, I've found the transcript for the episode online, so any lines you recognize are from the Christmas Special episode. I hope you enjoy!**

**Dobby's Polka-Dotted Sock**

**There's Something There**

Strax stood straight and stiff like a proud warrior as he stood outside the brougham carriage. With one hand he held a pair of binoculars to his eyes, and with the other he clutched his communicator. It was a somewhat primitive thing, but worked well enough, especially if a certain Time Lord was in the mood to tinker with it.

The problem was, the humanoid alien was rarely in the mood for anything, and never when pressed. That Time Lord was also who the Sontaran was on the lookout for. Not as exciting a prospect as it seemed, the Madame had charged him with being the Doctor's coachman, whenever the alien saw fit to use one.

What little business the Doctor conducted in the human world these days, he carried out at night. Jenny Flint, the hopeful human, was absolutely convinced that the alien was looking for something. Madame Vastra maintained that her old friend was merely stretching his legs. Strax just hoped he might give him advice on where a good spot for a minefield might be.

Nevertheless, whenever the Doctor did venture down from his cloud, the Sontaran was ready to cart him around the city of London. He felt it was his own private mission to try and pique the reclusive Time Lord's interest with something, so he naturally let the man off and picked him up in back alleys, where interesting things were much more likely to happen. And if he should get in a fight, so much the better.

The Doctor did not seem to care, mostly because he was determined to go by unnoticed, and so he stayed away from the main streets anyway. So he would go where he wished and Strax would wait dutifully by the carriage, making regular reports to the Madame.

"Still no sign of him, Madame, and a good amount of snow blankets the ground, making following his tracks impossible."

"That will not be necessary, Strax. You know as well as I that we are all to be mere observers. The Doctor does not wish to be followed," the Silurian's calm voice filtered out of the device, and he made a somewhat dissatisfied grunt.

"I still say we should declare war."

"On what, the moon?" Jenny's voice retorted back to him now. "How's that going to do any good?"

"Well it is actually doing something instead of sitting around. And I believe that it would spur the Doctor into action, remind him of what he should be doing—"

"The Doctor has grown tired of what he believes is a futile effort. More conflict and violence could possibly cause him to withdraw even further from the world," the Great Detective theorized. "What he needs is—"

"A human."

"What?" Both the Madame and her assistant asked.

"A human," Strax repeated, adjusting the view on his binoculars. "The Doctor is conversing with a human who has just emerged from a tavern." He could see the two just down the alley and around a corner, with help from the infrared setting. The human was a good bit smaller than the Time Lord, who was now studying something. Perhaps a snowman?

"What sort of human?" The Madame was curious.

"It appears to be a small boy with hair of Miss Flint's length or longer, wearing some sort of tunic," he described.

"That's a girl!" The maid replied irritably.

"How can you be certain?"

"Never mind—You sure he's not just saying hello?" Jenny sounded doubtful.

"No, they are continuing to communicate," he reaffirmed. "And he has stopped several times instead of leaving. In fact—"

But then as if the other alien simply wanted to spite and dash his optimistic words, he clearly heard the Time Lord's, "Goodbye!" a clear dismissal. Yet the human followed him still around the corner, giving a sharp exclamation of its own.

"Oi! Where are you going? I thought we was just getting acquainted." Clearly the human was of lower stature by its speech patterns, yet it carried itself with confidence, one eyebrow raised at the Gallifreyan native in challenge. The Doctor, for his part, paused in his escape yet again and actually turned to face the creature. He murmured something that Strax unfortunately could not pick up, though he noted that the human's face looked confused and, dare he say, interested.

"He is leaving the human and approaching the carriage," was his last dispatch before climbing up onto his seat at the front of the coach. He waited in silence as the other alien opened a door, slid in, and snapped it shut after him, rapping sharply on the roof of the vehicle to indicate he was ready for departure. The Time Lord tried to verbally communicate as little as possible these days, making his five or more minute conversation he'd had even more puzzling.

Strax took up the reigns with no small amount of disappointment, but as he could just make out rapid footsteps crunching through snow and harsh, ragged breaths from running, the Sontaran started the horse at a rather slow trot. And if the whole thing jostled moments later with the force of a relatively human-sized weight, he didn't see why that was a problem.

OoO

Jenny had gone to answer the door, and so Vastra was left to attempt a conversation with her old friend by herself. It was perhaps just as well, as her wife unfortunately seemed to have the effect of making the Time Lord incredibly closed-off. Whether it was because of her human species or simply her name they could never tell.

She could hear the sounds of hooves and rolling wheels, indicating the other alien was most certainly confined to the coach and could not pretend to be unable to hear her.

"Strax tells me he saw you speaking with a human girl," the Silurian stated, well aware that beating around the bush with the Time Lord was never a good idea. Too many words for the Doctor to use to lose himself and what you were trying to find in.

"Did he?" Was the short, crisp reply, and she did feel a slight pang of guilt at the setback this would likely put in the two's quasi-friendship. But she trusted Strax could handle biting words and sharp glares. So she forged ahead, determined to get something substantial from him.

"How refreshing to see you taking an interest again. Was she nice?" After all, she was curious. The Detective and her team had spent countless fruitless hours trying to get so much as a hello and how were you from the Doctor. What about one random barmaid in one random pub in one random alley in the city of London had caused him to stop and engage in an actual conversation?

Yet she was not judging. Because she knew that it never really mattered where such a person came from—if this girl could possibly be _one of them_—all that mattered was the person.

"I just spoke to her," her Gallifreyan friend deflected, seeming unwilling to discuss the matter further. This only served to make a smirk spread over her features. His avoidance of answering her question spoke louder than his agitated words.

"And made your usual impact, no doubt," she commented lightly. He always had quite the impact, intentional or not, and they'd had a handful of curious callers come to ask about the interesting man who frequented Paternoster Row. Yet each one had been turned away without so much as a second glance. But a whole conversation? That was promising.

"No, no impact at all," he replied hastily, like he did not want to even consider her words. "Those days are over." He said it with finality.

But Vastra just relaxed back in her chair and shook her head. "You can't help yourself. It's the same story every time." The story, the legend of the Doctor that never ended. Not even if he wanted it to. They'd do their best to see to that, for his sake as much as the rest of the universe. "And it always begins with the same two words."

He was worried, paranoid even, she could tell without even being in the carriage with him. "She'll never be able to find me again. She doesn't even have the name _Doctor_." But still he couldn't keep from demanding, ever the investigator, "What two words?"

She frowned in confusion as the communicator picked up a noise like a door opening. But she was sure the Time Lord wouldn't simply leave, he'd at least make Strax stop first. So who—

"Doctor?" An unfamiliar voice asked, female and young. "Doctor who?"

She held her breath, hands clutching the arms of her chair, anxious to hear his reaction.

"Strax!" Was the panicked summons.

OoO

He yanked with all his strength on the reigns, and the carriage jerked violently to a halt. The Sontaran coachmen turned about in his seat just in time to watch a pair of boots follow their owner down the hatch, as the human had clearly lost its balance.

"Oh!" A voice exclaimed at the sudden stop, the same one who had been talking to the Doctor just minutes ago. Strax nodded once to himself in satisfaction.

"Nothing to be alarmed about, Madame," he said into his communicator. "We have merely picked up a second passenger."

"Have you?" She inquired, sounding amused and just the tiniest bit excited.

"Madame, there's a man here saying he saw Dr. Simeon leave the Latimer Estate," he could just make out Jenny's voice. "If we hurry, we can still catch up to him!"

"As you've taken the trouble to dress for the occasion, my dear, I do not see why we shouldn't. Strax, I expect to hear all about this second passenger when you return," were the Silurian's orders.

"Yes, Madame," he replied. With that, he stepped down from the carriage and walked around to the side-door. This whole time some decidedly strange sounds had been coming from inside, most notably an alarmed yelp from the Doctor as the human had likely fallen on him. When Strax opened the door, their stowaway was sprawled on top of the Time Lord, who had been knocked to the ground presumably by the abrupt stop or a flailing limb.

"I- you- what—"

"Ohh, my bleedin' head."

"I believe you requested me, sir?" He asked at last, and both the human and humanoid alien sat up facing each other. His friend poked his head up over the human, looking quite cross.

"Of course I requested- how did she—" The Doctor seemed to be having difficulty articulating his shock, hands hovering in the air as though unsure where they should land. The human simply kept rubbing at its head, and his eyes kept darting to it, a nervous look overtaking his pale face. "Are you hurt?" The alien asked at last, reaching one of his hands out to brush some of the other's long hair aside so he could examine the possibly damaged area. Humans, ridiculously fragile.

"Nothing I can't handle," was the prompt response, and Strax nodded once more to himself. A resilient human, that would truly be an asset.

The Doctor had nodded as well. "Good," he stated flatly, scooping the small creature up in his arms and standing as best he could in the cramped space. Bent over nearly double, the Time Lord set it down on the bench. "Then sit tight, I'll be back in a minute," he instructed irritably, stepping out of the carriage.

The human scooted forward on the bench. "Where are you—" But the Doctor did not let it finish before snapping the door shut in its face. "Oi! You can't just do that!"

Leaning on the door to keep it closed, the mad man reached inside a pocket, and Strax waited with anticipation, wondering if just maybe it was the sonic screwdriver, which none of them had seen in some time. A frown marred the Time Lord's features however, and he then held out his hand palm up to the Sontaran.

"Key," he hissed, and Strax tried not to sigh as he handed it over, consoling himself with the thought that the sonic might not have worked on the wooden door anyway.

"Key, sir." The Doctor snatched it impatiently from his fingers, turning it in the lock. The effect that had on their passenger-turned-prisoner was immediate.

"Are you locking me in? Oi! Say something you- you—Doctor!"

The alien it called out to winced slightly before schooling his features into the cold mask they'd all grown to know, marching away from the carriage with his hands stuffed in his pockets.

"The human is right, sir. I have to take that carriage back to Madame Vastra by tonight."

"Yes, I know," the other snapped, removing his top hat with one hand to run agitated fingers through his hair with the other. "But- she followed me. She followed me, why would she do that?" Strax chose to remain silent, which was fine because for once the Doctor appeared to have a lot to say. "Interesting- no, bad! Very, very bad, because if she's willing to jump on a moving carriage," he seemed to chuckle both in disbelief and admiration, "She's not going to just leave me alone."

"What was it that she specifically wanted, sir?" He decided to ask, and the Time Lord paused in his frantic pacing.

"The snow…she was asking about the Snowman because it had- it had appeared, from nowhere." As he spoke, the Doctor spun around and approached a pile of the cold, white substance. Crouching down, he began to study it intently.

Strax retrieved his binoculars, going back to his other assigned task; watching for any sign of a certain Dr. Simeon and his colleagues. Earlier that evening, he'd observed several men collecting snow from snowmen across the entire city. And now he saw Simeon himself, he guessed leaving the house Jenny had mentioned. He hoped his friends would know more about just what that man's plan was.

OoO

"We'll need the Worm."

"Sir," Strax replied emotionlessly, striding purposefully around to the front of the carriage. On the inside, though, the warrior was disheartened. While he found the Memory Worm to be a useful tool, in this case it was being implemented in a way undesirable to him. Though the Sontaran would laugh before admitting to something akin to pity, he felt misgivings about using the Worm on this human _girl_.

Though brief and incredibly grudging, the Doctor had acted more like himself in these past few minutes than he had since he'd come to Victorian London. The Time Lord had slipped into the old familiar role of teacher to the naïve creature, and had even made a passable attempt at what Strax perceived to be a joke, albeit at his expense.

But if this girl touched the Worm and forgot everything of this encounter, then what little progress she had forced upon their friend would be lost, and the millennium-old alien would be sure to be more cautious. There was something about this particular human that had an effect on the Doctor like no one else, and without her they might never see him recovered. They might as well just forget the whole thing.

Forget…

Strax paused just as he had been about to slip the gauntlets over his hands. Perhaps there was something to be done after all.

Quickly and quietly, he picked up his communicator. "Madame? Miss Flint?"

"We are here, Strax. What is it?" The Silurian asked, and he was relieved that the two had made it back to the house in time.

"A complication has arisen. The Doctor seems determined that he must lose this new acquaintance. Therefore, I propose a distraction is needed; I'm going to touch the Memory Worm."

"Are you nutters?" Jenny hissed, "What good's having _you_ forget everything?"

"You may debrief me whenever it is required. Otherwise, I have no choice but to let the Doctor use the Memory Worm on this girl, and that would be an impediment to our mission."

Madame Vastra sighed. "If you feel it is necessary, Strax. Good luck."

He set down the communicator and retrieved the jar containing the Worm. Calmly, Strax unscrewed the lid and stuck his hand inside.

He was incredibly disoriented, blinking and turning his head this way and that. How had he gotten here? He appeared to be standing outside, next to the Madame's carriage and holding an empty jar. The Sontaran could hear the voice of the Time Lord, however, and so he decided to try and get some answers from him. Placing the jar down, Strax walked back around to the side-door.

"Where is it?" The Doctor asked impatiently.

Bewildered, Strax merely said, "Where's what, sir?"

"I sent you to get the Memory Worm," the other explained irritably. Strax puzzled over that, as he didn't recall being sent to get anything.

"Did you? When?" It was with a start that he realized that it wasn't just the Doctor in the carriage. A human sat inside as well, observing him with no small amount of amusement. "Who's he?" He inquired somewhat hopefully, wondering if perhaps the Time Lord was actually socializing with people again. "What are we doing here?" Remembering that humans tended to like small talk, and wanting to put the potential companion at ease, he forced a smile on his face and added, "Look, it's been snowing!"

Though the human continued to grin, the Doctor merely scowled. "You didn't use the gauntlets, did you?"

"Why would I need the gauntlets?" There was only one purpose for the things, he realized. "Do you want me to get the Memory Worm?"

"You—" The other alien seemed at a loss for words, snapping his mouth shut and shaking his head. With a frustrated sigh, the Doctor stepped out of the carriage and thrust his hand out toward the human, reluctantly taking up the role of a gentleman. "Clara, was it?"

"Yes," Clara answered, grasping his hand and touching down lightly on the snow.

"Right, well, you just, er, stand there a minute. Strax, we're going to have to look for it—and don't forget the gauntlets this time!" The Time Lord instructed. He nodded, walking to the front of the carriage. This was troubling him, since he was certain he would never be so foolish as to forget equipment.

As he retrieved the gauntlets, Jenny's voice sounded, rapid and hushed, from his communicator. "Strax!"

"What is it?" He questioned, doing his best to disguise that he was having a conversation. Fortunately, the Doctor appeared to be distracted with his own discussion with the human Clara.

"You touched the Memory Worm cause the Doctor's met this girl and he was going to make her touch it," she explained.

Ah, that made more sense. "I see. The human's name is Clara," he reported. Glancing back, he could see that this _girl_ seemed to be enjoying herself, and the Time Lord was as well, however unwillingly. He was certainly more animated and talkative than the Sontaran had seen him in the longest time.

Well, now what could he do? By this point, Strax had retrieved the gauntlets and had crawled under the carriage, the Worm's most likely hiding spot. If he caught the Memory Worm now, then it would have been worthless for him to have touched it in the first place.

"I can see it," he announced, and the other two hurried over.

"Ooh! Can you reach it?" The Doctor asked, but Strax instead met the human Clara's eyes as she leaned in for a look. The warrior steeled himself and wriggled his hands out of the gauntlets, shaking them slightly at her. The human's eyes widened momentarily before her mouth turned up in a smirk, and she took them from him. He reached forward again for the second time that night, though it was the first time he remembered.

It was very dark, and he was lying on his back. The ground was cold and wet beneath him.

"Have you got it?" He heard the Doctor ask, and Strax blinked. When had the Doctor joined him, wherever he was?

"Got what, sir?"

Distantly he heard an unfamiliar voice speak, but he was more preoccupied with the fact that he appeared to be underneath a carriage, and rather close to its wheels.

"Sir, emergency! I think I've been run over by a cab!" Though the Sontaran was no stranger to pain, he felt himself begin to panic anyway. Earth medicine during this time period was simply dreadful.

"I- you—never mind!" The Time Lord burst out in aggravation. "I'll get it myself!" He could hear the other alien shuffling about, but what caught Strax's attention was the stranger whose face suddenly hovered above his, peering down at him through the carriage.

It was a human, fairly young, and it smiled at him before mouthing the words, "Thank you." What was a human thanking him for?

As the Doctor continued searching for something, Strax slid out from under the carriage, brushing snow off of himself. Going around to the front, he decided to make a report.

"Madame, the Doctor has acquired a human, though I do not recall how."

"Bloody hell—you touched the Memory Worm again?" Jenny demanded, sounding fed up with him.

"Did I?" That definitely explained things. "Why did I do that?"

"The Doctor met that girl- her name's Clara –and she followed him. But he wants to use the Memory Worm on her so that she'll forget him," she summarized tiredly.

He heard yelling coming from down the alley, and turned to see the Time Lord clutching the human's arms, and they both appeared to be drenched. The human was breathing harshly, looking about in confusion and alarm, but the Doctor smiled. He _smiled_.

"Well, very good. Very, very good. Ha!"

"He appears in extremely high spirits," Strax spoke into the communicator, mouth hanging open.

"What?"

The two were returning to the carriage now, and so he made some minor preparations, climbing back into the driver's seat. He turned back to see the Doctor lift the girl up and into the carriage.

"Don't come looking for me. Forget about me. You understand?"

"What about the snow? Shouldn't we be warning people?" This human had a good heart, he could already tell. But unfortunately, she was about to be disappointed, just as they all were.

"Not my problem. Merry Christmas." The Doctor shut the door to the carriage once again, looking at him and ordering, "Take her back where we found her."

"Sir," he replied with a slight nod, watching the Time Lord turn about on his heel and stalk away. Strax sighed and got the horses moving again, taking the most direct route back to Madame Vastra's.

He'd unlocked the door for a reason, after all.

OoO

Jenny was making her way to the market the next afternoon when she noticed a growing crowd. While such things weren't uncommon in London, what really got her attention was _where_ the crowd was forming. Specifically, they were lining up along the fence that enclosed the small park—the park over which the Doctor had parked his TARDIS indefinitely.

And then she heard it.

"Doctor!"

Jenny's eyes widened in alarm, because this was exactly what the Doctor did _not_ want, and ducked and weaved through the masses of people to the edge of the fence. A young woman, with brown hair pinned neatly under a hat and a rather nice dress of matching blue, was jumping up and down shouting at the sky. Which meant she knew what was up there.

This had to be the girl—Clara—that Strax and the Time Lord had encountered the night before. And she'd come back once again, looking for him.

The Doctor was unlikely to answer that call. So she'd have to in his stead. Plus, people were really starting to talk.

Jenny slipped into the park, hurrying over to the yelling girl, and reached out to stop her from jumping again. "Now then, that's enough noise. We don't want to attract attention, do we?"

The other woman turned sharply to face her, an excitement in her eyes, and though she'd made no comment to suggest her affiliation with the mad man, asked, "I'm looking for the Doctor. Do you know about him? The Doctor?"

Cautious, and not quite believing her luck, Jenny tried her own question. "Doctor who?"

The young woman grinned. "Exactly."

Doing her best not to seem too eager, Jenny took her hand and shook it. "Jenny Flint."

"Clara—"

"I know," she cut in hastily, looking about as people gradually lost interest and began going about their usual business, and then chanced a glance up at the puffy white clouds. There was no sign of anything up there, anything at all, yet she still felt nervous. "Look, I can't take you to him—he won't see you. But I know someone who might be able to help you convince him otherwise."

"I see," Clara nodded, and fell into step with her as she led them away from the park and back to Paternoster Row. She then smirked slightly as she asked, "It wouldn't be that little man—Strax, was it?"

Jenny shook her head. "Oh no, course not. I mean the Madame."

The other raised an eyebrow in interest. "Oh? Was that the woman he was talking to with that thing in the carriage?"

She raised her own eyebrow in response. Obviously Clara was quite smart. "Yes." They were approaching the house now, and so Jenny felt she had to make something clear. "I'd like to tell you more, I'd like to really help you, but you've got to do this on your own."

"Like a test?" Clara guessed, and she nodded.

"Exactly. See, we're really not supposed to be doing this- encouraging you, I mean. He doesn't want people bothering him," she explained.

"If he wanted that he wouldn't bother coming down from that box on a cloud," Clara observed, and Jenny felt very impressed to learn that the girl had actually seen the TARDIS, that she'd already come so far with what little help they'd given. "He may say one thing, but actions speak louder, do they not?"

"That's what I've been saying," she stated, but they had now arrived home. Jenny unlocked the door and showed the girl in, taking off her coat and other outer-wear garments, and heard the tell-tale thuds of Strax's footsteps.

"Do not attempt to escape or you will be obliterated!" He warned in his usual harsh voice, before returning to the sort of dialogue they had taught him. "May I take your coat?"

Clara giggled behind her hand before removing her coat and handing it off to the Sontaran. "You may. And may I say, it is a pleasure to see you again, good sir."

"Thank you," he replied with some effort, "_Miss_," he seemed to remember after a pause. As he headed down the hall, Jenny just sighed.

"Honestly, it's not like you'd come here just to try running away. If you'd wait a minute, I'll let the Madame know you're here." Jenny walked down the hall until she was out of sight, and then broke into the run that her exhilaration and joy were demanding of her. She was proud of herself for remaining so calm until now and so felt no shame upon bursting into her wife's conservatory.

"Madame!"

"What is it, my dear?" The Silurian woman turned in her chair towards her with a smile.

"It's her—Miss Clara, the human girl from yesterday—I saw her jumping around in the park under the TARDIS, shouting up at the clouds for him! So I brought her here, and I think she really might be it!"

"That's wonderful," the Detective's smile grew, so Jenny seized on this moment of good news.

"I think we ought to let the Doctor know. Maybe he'll realize how silly this all is and that he can be part of the world again—"

"Not until we give her the test," the Madame said, raising one hand out to stop her fast speech. She felt her shoulders slump.

"The One Word Test? But, Madame, no one's ever passed," she couldn't keep from pointing out.

"If Miss Clara really is 'it' then she will pass. She must. For hundreds of years the Doctor has helped people. Unfortunately, it is _him_ who now requires help. And he deserves the best, just as he has given all this time." Jenny sighed again, knowing the other's words to be true.

"I hope she can do it, because I don't think anyone's ever going to come as close."

OoO

The human seated before her had lowered her head, staring at her hands in her lap as if they held all the answers. The female was obviously lost in her thoughts, sorting through every single last choice. And that was good, Vastra respected such caution, such deliberation. The next word that came from Miss Clara's lips would likely decide the rest of her life.

And she was content to wait. As a friend of the Doctor's, she truly wanted the best for him, and felt that was just as important as actually getting him to end his period of isolationism. Anyone could travel the stars and provide distraction from pain, but it took a rare person to actually _heal_ a Time Lord.

She had to admit, though, Miss Clara certainly had her curious. A young woman who would chase after a stranger in the night, leap onto his moving carriage, show only the slightest hints of surprise and wariness at the sight of a clone warrior or a lizard woman, and manage to see past his rejections and curt manner and go to him for help was most interesting, indeed. There was something about this woman, something the Doctor had seen and was desperately trying to forget. Just see if they let him.

Vastra was drawn out of her reflections when Miss Clara at last raised her head to meet her eyes. There was nothing there but certainty. She had chosen her word. Behind the human's chair, she saw her wife tense in anticipation, and could not help sitting a little straighter in her chair as well.

Clearly and unwaveringly, Miss Clara gave her one word. "Pond."

The Detective's eyes widened. Jenny's mouth fell open. Could this girl, this one human girl, possibly understand the significance of that one word? Did she have any idea what it meant to the Doctor? Perhaps it was luck, or coincidence, but Miss Clara had chosen the one word- the only one –that just might make him listen. And she had done it all by herself.

Vastra settled back against her chair and raised her glass to her lips, taking a delicate sip. "Very well. I shall pass on your message, and soon we shall see if it was the right one. Until then, good day."

"Gratitude," was Miss Clara's response. Vastra allowed the woman to see her smile.

"It is I who should be thanking you, Miss Clara."

Jenny, who could not seem to keep the delighted grin from her face, showed the other human out as she made the call. He didn't answer on the first ring, he never did, despite the fact that he was probably sitting within an easy reaching distance.

"Yes? What? I'm trying to read," he snapped, though it sounded more weary than angry. That was what allowed her to keep from giving up on him all this time. He wasn't cruelly abandoning the Earth or the universe; he was trying to protect himself from a universe that had been much too cruel to him over the years. Well, maybe he could be reminded of the good in it again.

"Miss Clara and her concerns about the snow," she stated, getting right to the point. He made no noise, and seemed hardly surprised that the human had approached her. Obviously he had noticed the girl's tenacity. "I gave her the One Word Test."

"That's always pointless," the other alien dismissed, but still inquired, "What did she say? Well? _Well_?" He was demanding it now, and she truly relished this moment. Because at last, something- someone –had gotten to him. Someone he invested an interest in, someone he couldn't simply ignore. She smirked, imagining his face on the other end of the line as she calmly replied.

"Pond." There was nothing, not a sound, yet she did not worry because she knew. They had him. "Strax has already suggested where to start investigating," she said instead, because now was not the time for gloating, they had work to do.

OoO

The Doctor yelled orders, darted about, and even gave Strax a noogie.

"Stay here," he instructed, leaving the room to meet with Dr. Simeon at the door. Miss Clara was right on his heels. And when she did not return, all three shared a smile. They'd finally done it.

**Ok, so super-long oneshot. Hopefully this was both funny and true to the Christmas Special. I love Vastra-Jenny-Strax meddling, it's so fun to write. Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed it, thanks for reading and please review!**


End file.
